Hydrogen-Bond Dynamics in the Excited State of Coumarin 102

Chemistry Group, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Mumbai 400 085, India, and ... Subpicosecond time-resolved infrared absorption spectroscopy has be...
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J. Phys. Chem. A 2003, 107, 10798-10804

Hydrogen-Bond Dynamics in the Excited State of Coumarin 102-Aniline Hydrogen-Bonded Complex† Dipak K. Palit,*,‡,§ Tieqiao Zhang,§ Shigeichi Kumazaki,§ and Keitaro Yoshihara*,§ Radiation Chemistry & Chemical Dynamics DiVision, Chemistry Group, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Mumbai 400 085, India, and School of Materials Science, Japan AdVanced Institute of Science and Technology, Tatsunokuchi, Ishikawa 923-1292, Japan ReceiVed: May 19, 2003; In Final Form: September 11, 2003

Comparison of the steady-state FTIR absorption spectra of coumarin-102 (C-102) in tetrachloroethylene with added aniline of various concentrations, in neat aniline and in neat N,N-dimethylaniline (DMA), indicates formation of a hydrogen-bonded complex between C-102 and aniline in solution. Subpicosecond time-resolved infrared absorption spectroscopy has been applied to study the dynamics of the hydrogen-bond following photoexcitation of C-102 chromophore in a C-102-aniline hydrogen-bonded complex. Upon photoexcitation at 400 nm, the hydrogen bond between C-102 and aniline breaks within 250 fs. Reformation of hydrogenbond between the excited C-102 molecule and aniline takes place within about 30 ps. Biexponential temporal dynamics monitored at CdO stretching vibration (1736-1742 cm-1) in neat aniline, which is a strongly structured solvent due to formation of intermolecular hydrogen bonds, reveals the biphasic solvation dynamics of aniline with solvation times 0.6 and 7.2 ps. These time constants have been assigned to nondiffusive and diffusive structural reorganization of the solvent.

1. Introduction Photoinduced electron transfer (PET) reactions in hydrogenbonded donor-acceptor complexes, in which the donor and acceptor molecules are linked to each other by a hydrogen bond, represents a new and unique area of research.1 These investigations have clearly established that as photon absorption initiates the transfer of an electron from the donor to the acceptor, the hydrogen bond can act as an effective conduit to facilitate the electron transfer (ET) process. The interplay between proton motion and electron transfer has far-ranging implications in biology, chemistry, and physics.2-7 One of the important aspects of the pathway model of Beraton and Onuchic is the prediction of the importance of hydrogen bonds in the mediation of electronic coupling.8 Therein and co-workers have designed a number of model systems for investigating the efficacy of hydrogen bonds in mediating the coupling.4 Because of directionality of hydrogen bonds, the separation distance and relative orientations of the donor and acceptor are well defined.9 In general, the suggestion of the pathway model that a hydrogen bond is worth about two covalent bonds in mediating the electronic coupling has been supported.10-12 Recently, efforts in supramolecular solid-state chemistry have been directed toward the rational design of coupled-electron/proton-transfer systems with novel electronic and photonic properties.13-15 From a more fundamental point of view, the ET process in hydrogenbonded systems steps beyond the outer sphere reactions treated by Marcus theory. The making and breaking of chemical bonds, which are not originally considered in this theory, may involve both ET and bond-forming/bond-breaking processes that accompany proton motion within the hydrogen-bond interface.16-18 †

Part of the special issue “Charles S. Parmenter Festschrift”. * Corresponding author: Dipak K. Palit, E-mail: dkpalit@ apsara.barc.ernet.in. Tel: 91-22-255595091, Fax: 91-22-25505151/25519613. ‡ Bhabha Atomic Research Centre. § Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology.

The PET process between courmarin and aromatic amine solvents has been widely studied.19-23 Interestingly, in the molecule of a coumarin dye, the CdO group is the only site that is responsible for both hydrogen bond formation and electron acceptance. Hence, it is an ideal system to explore the possibility of having a complete understanding about the role of hydrogen bond dynamics in the electron-transfer processes in hydrogen-bonded donor-acceptor molecular systems. The dynamics of intermolecular ET reactions, involving neat aromatic amine solvents, such as aniline (AN) and N,N-dimethylaniline (DMA), as the donors and the electronic excited states of coumarin dyes as the acceptors has been investigated by several groups using a fluorescence up-conversion technique.19-23 In most coumarin-aniline systems, the ET dynamics takes place in a faster time domain than the solvation dynamics.19-23 As a result, it should be accompanied by and possibly be coupled with the hydrogen-bond dynamics, since it has been shown that hydrogen-bond dynamics occurs in the subpicosecond time domain.24-28 However, most of the experimental techniques applied so far to study the ET reaction dynamics, such as fluorescence up-conversion and transient absorption spectroscopy in the visible region, are not very sensitive to the local solute-solvent geometries and hence provided only limited insight into the microscopic dynamics. Therefore, we plan to investigate the role of hydrogen-bond dynamics in intermolecular PET reaction in coumarin-amine hydrogen-bonded complex in solution, by applying the timeresolved vibrational spectroscopic technique. In our previous study, we observed a significant deuterium isotope effect on the electron-transfer dynamics in the coumarin-aniline systems when the amino hydrogen atoms are deuterated.21 It indicated that the hydrogen-bond dynamics play a significant role in the PET process. The CdO group in C-102, has been reported to be a good hydrogen-bond acceptor to form hydrogen-bonded complexes with hydrogen bond donating solvents, such as

10.1021/jp030633a CCC: $25.00 © 2003 American Chemical Society Published on Web 11/11/2003

Hydrogen-Bond Dynamics

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SCHEME 1: Chemical Structure of the Coumarin-102 Molecule

phenols.19,22 Hence, C-102 is also expected to form a hydrogenbonded complex with aniline in the ground state. Following photoexcitation of the coumarin chromophore with ultra short laser pulses of 400 nm, we follow the hydrogenbond dynamics in real time by monitoring the temporal evolution of vibrational absorption due to CdO stretching in the 17001800 cm-1 region. In this paper, we report the results of our investigations on the hydrogen-bond dynamics in the excited state of coumarin-102 (C-102)-aniline hydrogen-bonded complex. While the PET process in many of the coumarin-amine systems is very fast (faster than the solvation time) and complete within a few picoseconds, the same process in the C-102-amine system is slow and takes about a few nanoseconds to be completed.19-21 Hence, in this system we expect to observe only the hydrogen-bond dynamics isolated from the ET process, since the ET dynamics is much slower than the hydrogen-bond dynamics. Recently, Elsaesser and co-workers applied this technique to observe the changes in distinct functional groups involved in the hydrogen-bond formation, which provided sitespecific insight into local dynamics. They observed that dynamics of hydrogen bonds occur on ultrafast time scales set by vibrational motions of the hydrogen bond between the donor and the acceptor.24-28 2. Experimental Section Laser grade C-102 (chemical structure of C-102 is shown in Scheme 1), procured from Exciton, was used as it was received. Analytical reagent (AR) grade aniline and dimethylaniline (DMA) were distilled under nitrogen atmosphere just before their use. Spectrograde tetrachloroethylene (TCE) was used as received without further purification. The steady-state absorption and fluorescence spectra were recorded on Shimadzu UV-3100 absorption spectrophotometer and JASCO FP-777 spectrofluorimeter, respectively. FTIR spectra of the liquid samples taken in a 1 mm thin cell with CaF2 windows were recorded on Thermo Nicolet AVATR-360 infrared spectrometer. We performed subpicosecond time-resolved vibrational spectroscopy using a mid-infrared transient absorption spectrometer, which has been described in detail elsewhere.29 Briefly, an amplified Ti:sapphire laser system, consisting of an oscillator (Tsunami 3960, Spectra Physics) and a regenarative amplifier (“Spitfire”, Spectra Physics), produces 120-fs pulses centered at 800 nm with 1 kHz repetition rate. Subsequently, the 400 nm light for pump is generated via frequency doubling of the fundamental in a 1 mm thick BBO crystal. An OPA (OPA-800 from Spectra Physics), pumped by a fraction of the fundamental from the amplifier, is used to produce signal and idler beams in the region of 1.14 ∼1.6 µm and 1.98 ∼ 1.6 µm, respectively. The total powers of the signal and idler beams were mixed collinearly in a 2 mm thick crystal to generate the tunable midinfrared probe (from 800 to 2800 cm-1) pulses for probing the transient absorption. The experiments were performed on 200-

Figure 1. Steady-state FTIR spectra. (A) C-102 (1.5 × 10-2 mol dm-3) in tetrachloroethylene (TCE) in absence (a) and in the presence of 1 and 3 mol dm-3 of aniline (curves b and c, respectively). C-102 in neat aniline (curve “d”) and neat aniline only (curve “e”). (B) Neat DMA (curve “f” ) and C-102 (1 × 10-2 mol dm-3) in DMA (curve “g”).

µm thick liquid samples taken in a flow through cell. The temporal resolution was about 250 fs, as determined by measurement of the cross correlation in a 300 µm thick plate of silicon. 3. Results 3.1. Steady-State FTIR Spectra. Curve “a” in Figure 1 shows the steady-state FTIR spectrum of a solution of C-102 (15 × 10-3 mol dm-3) in TCE. It shows a very strong absorption band having the maximum at ca. 1730 cm-1 due to stretching vibration of the CdO group. Vibrational spectra of C-102 were also recorded in the same solvent with varying concentrations of aniline, as well as in neat aniline (∼11 mol dm-3, curve “d”). In the presence of 1 mol dm-3 of aniline (curve “b” in Figure 1), the absorption maximum due to CdO stretching mode appears at 1722 cm-1. A red shift of about 8 cm-1 for the absorption maximum and a reduction in molar extinction coefficient of absorption, indicates the formation of an association complex between C-102 and aniline. In the presence of 3 mol dm-3 of aniline in TCE, the FTIR spectrum of C-102 has the absorption maximum at 1719 cm-1, with an increase in absorbance as compared to that in curve “b”, and a shoulder at 1698 cm-1. In the case of C-102 in neat aniline (∼11 mol dm-3), the absorption maximum due to the CdO group appears at 1698 cm-1 (curve “d”). All of these observations indicate formation of some kind of complex between C-102 and aniline. Curve “e” shows the FTIR spectrum of neat aniline. It has a maximum at 1703 cm-1. However, this band is not observed in the FTIR spectrum of aniline in TCE if the concentration of aniline is less than 1 mol dm-3. Hence this band could be assigned to some kind of self-association complex of aniline.30-32 It is evident that the curve “d” represents the combined spectra due to neat aniline and the C-102-aniline association complex. We also observed a red shift of about 6 nm of the maximum wavelength in the steady-state fluorescence spectrum as well as a strong quenching of fluorescence intensity of C-102 in the presence of aniline in TCE. Curve “g” in Figure 1B shows the FTIR spectrum of C-102 in neat DMA. The absorption

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Figure 3. Time-resolved change of vibrational absorption at 1700 cm-1 after electronic excitation of C102 in neat aniline (curve a). Curve b represents the blank experiment with neat aniline only.

Figure 2. Time-resolved change of vibrational absorption monitored at different frequencies following optical excitation of C-102 chromophore (1.5 × 10-2 mol dm-3) in neat DMA (A), in the presence of 1 mol dm-3 of aniline in TCE (B), and in neat aniline (C and D). The solid line in C indicates the transient absorption signal due to pure aniline. The lifetimes obtained by single- or two-exponential fittings of the data are given in the insets.

maximum due to the CdO group in neat DMA appears at 1730 cm-1, which is nearly the same position at which the absorption due to CdO stretching of C-102 in TCE appears (curve “a”). However, the bandwidth of CdO absorption is reduced significantly in DMA as compared to that in TCE. 3.2. Time-Resolved Infrared Absorption Study. Timeresolved infrared absorption spectroscopic studies have been performed with the solutions containing C-102 in neat aniline and DMA and in TCE in the presence of 1 mol dm-3 of aniline. Upon photoexcitation of coumarin-amine systems by ultrashort (duration of about 150 fs) laser pulses of 400 nm, which is resonant to the electronic S1 r S0 transition of C-102, only the C-102 chromophore is excited. Aniline and DMA molecules do not absorb at 400 nm, and hence they stay in their ground electronic states. The temporal evolution of the vibrational absorption due to the CdO stretching vibration of C-102 was monitored at both 1742 and 1736 cm-1 in the case of aniline as the donor, and at 1730 cm-1 for the CdO stretching vibration of C-102 in neat DMA. Figure 2 presents the temporal profiles for vibrational absorption changes following optical excitation of C-102 in the presence of donors. Figure 2A shows the temporal profile of the transient absorption with C-102 in neat DMA at the probe frequency 1730 cm-1 (corresponding to the CdO stretching frequency of C-102 in DMA). It consists of a dip (negative absorption) at negative time delays, positive going change around zero delay, and a rise of negative absorption signal after the zero delay due to ground-state bleaching of C-102 following

photoexcitation. The small dip (negative absorption) and a rise before and around the zero time is due to perturbed free induction decay as well as cross correlation with the exciting beam. The bleaching signal takes about 5 ps to grow to the maximum (growth lifetime is about 2 ps) and does not recover within the time-domain of our experiment, i.e., up to about 100 ps (Figure 2A). Figure 2B presents the temporal profile of the transient absorption monitored at 1736 cm-1, following photoexcitation of C-102 in the presence of 1 mol dm-3 of aniline in TCE. It consists of a dip (negative absorption) before the zero time delay due to the perturbed free induction decay and a sharp rise of the absorption to the maximum positive value around the zero time delay with instrument response time (∼250 fs). This is followed by a dual-exponential decay of the transient absorption to a residual value (about 15% of the peak value), which in its turn takes a few hundred picoseconds to decay (not shown in Figure 2). The lifetimes of the two components decaying in the early time domain are 0.25 and 6.8 ps. The temporal profiles of the transient absorption monitored at 1736 and 1742 cm-1 following photoexcitation of C-102 dissolved in neat aniline are shown in the Figures 2C and 2D. The hydrogen-bonded complex has a weak absorption at 1736 cm-1 but no absorption at 1742 cm-1. The free CdO group absorbs strongly at both the frequencies. The decay characteristics of the transient absorption presented in these figures are more or less similar to those shown in Figure 2B. The lifetimes of the two components decaying in the early time domain have been determined to be 0.6 ( 0.1 and 7.2 ( 0.4 ps. It is important to note that the free induction decay before the zero time delay is not observed in the case of the kinetic trace monitored at 1742 cm-1 (Figure 2D), at which the C-102-aniline complex does not absorb. The free induction decay before the zero time delay seems to be significant in the region where the C-102aniline complex shows substantial absorption. Since the free induction decay originates from the perturbation of the probeinduced polarization of the pump pulse, if the probe pulse is not resonant to a molecular transition (here it is CdO stretching), there should be no polarization with a finite dephasing time, and thus the probe-induced free induction decay is absent in the transient absorption profile monitored at 1742 cm-1. The temporal profile “a”, shown in Figure 3, represents the transient infrared absorption signal monitored at 1700 cm-1, at which both the self-association complex of aniline and the C-102-aniline hydrogen-bonded complex absorb. This shows a large negative absorption dip before zero delay time due to free induction decay. The partial recovery of the negative

Hydrogen-Bond Dynamics absorption signal around the zero delay time is followed by another small rise of the negative absorption signal with a growth lifetime of about 5 ps. Since we could not observe the same kind of temporal profile with neat aniline alone (temporal profile “b”), the transient absorption signal “a” definitely represents the characteristic of the excited C-102-aniline hydrogen-bonded complex in neat aniline solvent. This bleach signal has not recovered within our experimental time domain (i.e., up to about 100 ps). 4. Discussion 4.1. C-102-Aniline Hydrogen-Bonded Complex. The position of the absorption band due to CdO stretching in the FTIR spectrum of the C-102 molecule in neat DMA has not been affected as compared to that of C-102 in TCE, which is a noninteracting solvent. However, in the presence of aniline, not only is the position of CdO absorption red-shifted but also the absorption coefficient has been reduced significantly. The fact that aniline has the ability to form a hydrogen bond with the CdO group of C-102 molecule, but not DMA, suggests that the formation of complex between C-102 and aniline occurs via formation of a hydrogen bond between the CdO group of C-102 and the H-N group of aniline (CdO‚‚‚H-N). However, due to a small shift between the absorption maxima of the Cd O group in free C-102 and the C-102-aniline complex in TCE, as well as considerable overlap between the absorption spectra of C-102-aniline complex and self-associated complex in neat aniline solvent, it has not been possible to determine the association constant for C-102-aniline complex. The larger red shift and increase in absorbance of the C-102-aniline complex in the presence of higher concentrations of aniline in TCE or in neat aniline could possibly be explained by postulating higher association constants for the C-102-aniline hydrogen-bonded complex in the solvents of higher polarity of the solvent medium (dielectric constants are 6.7 and 2.3 for aniline and TCE, respectively). One point to note here is that the bandwidth of the vibrational absorption band due to CdO stretch in neat DMA is narrower than that in TCE. Narrower bandwidth of CdO absorption in neat DMA may possibly indicate a charge-transfer type of interaction between C-102 and DMA. 4.2. Hydrogen-Bond Dynamics in the Excited State of C-102-Aniline Hydrogen-Bonded Complex. We mentioned earlier that the lifetimes of the S1 state of C-102 in neat aniline and DMA are 1.4 and 2.4 nanoseconds, respectively.19-21 Since the process of PET from amines to the excited C-102 molecule occurs on a few nanosecond time scale (see Introduction), the time dependent absorbance changes, as shown in Figure 2, indicate the role of hydrogen-bond in the excited state dynamics of C-102 in aniline, rather than in the dynamics of ET reactions between the dye and aniline. The difference in dynamics of the excited C-102 molecule in the presence of aniline and DMA obviously suggests the involvement of the hydrogen-bond dynamics in the solvation of the S1 state of C-102 in aniline. In the case of C-102 in DMA (Figure 2A), the transient absorption profile monitored at the probe wavelength 1730 cm-1, indicates the bleaching of absorption, while in the case of C-102-aniline systems, we observe the instrument response time limited rise of the transient absorption due to free or unbound CdO stretching vibration monitored in the region 1730-1742 cm-1 (Figures 2B, 2C, and 2D). The negative absorption signal, which we observe due to bleaching of the ground state of C-102 in DMA following optical excitation to its S1 state, indicates the decrease of the vibrational transition moment for the V ) 0 to V ) 1 transition in the S1 state as compared to that in the S0

J. Phys. Chem. A, Vol. 107, No. 49, 2003 10801 state. Nibbering et al.24,25 found a decrease in the oscillator strength of the V ) 0 to V ) 1 transition in the excited state without a significant spectral shift upon optical excitation at 400 nm.25 However, while the growth of the bleach signal should follow the instrument response time, in C-102-DMA system, we observe a growth lifetime of about 2 ps. Possibly, we could not observe the instantaneous bleach because of unwanted coherent artifacts masking all the dynamics at very early delay times. The growth lifetime of about 2 ps could possibly be due to the nondiffusive component of the dipolar solvation of the excited state of C-102 in DMA. This time constant has been measured to be about 3 ps by the fluorescence dynamic Stokes shift method.22 The increase in transient absorption immediately following the electronic excitation of the coumarin chromophore in the C-102-aniline hydrogen-bonded complex indicates the instantaneous (